Life’s Turning Points

February 15, 2009: 2 Kings 5: 1-14, Mark 1: 40-45

This morning I want you to think about times in your life, when life has changed—turning points, roads taken or not taken. The scripture stories we heard from 2 Kings and from Mark 1 are both about life-changing events. They describe physical healing from leprosy—an illness that not only deformed a person and eventually took their life, but also caused the leper to be removed from the community to live cut off from community support.

One of the healed persons was part of the top rung of community leadership—a widely hailed warrior General. His life was turned around, from illness to health by submitting to the directions of a prophet-healer who directed the General, Naaman, to wash himself in the muddy waters of the River Jordan 7 times.

Nothing is said about the social status of the leper who came to Jesus. He simply recognized Jesus’ healing powers and asked to be healed, and Jesus healed him.  Then a twist in the story. Jesus directs the healed man to report to religious leaders—who had to certify that he was healed before he could be re-admitted to the community. And Jesus instructed the healed man NOT to tell anyone how the healing occurred. But, it was such a life-changing moment in the leper’s life, he could not keep quiet and he told everyone what had happened and who healed him and Jesus was again mobbed with people desperate for the good news of God’s healing grace.

What have been “turning-points” in your life? There are different ways of turning.

(1) Turning away can be a turning point. Recently several people from AA programs have come to “do” their 5^th Step of the Spiritual Program with me. Alcoholics Anonymous is a spiritual program of which the beginning is to recognize that you are powerless alcohol. Step 4 is to do a thorough moral inventory of your life, and step 5 is to share that moral inventory with another person.

This person had a wake-up call in his spirit and soul last fall. His turning to a healthier life-style really impacted him, when he and his wife were having dinner with friends all of whom drink lots. By the end of the evening, his friend was falling down drunk, getting sick and just lying in a heap on the floor. The next day this passed out guy, called the man turning away from drinking and said in a hung-over voice, “Wasn’t that fun last night?” The guy on the path to recovery said to himself, “Wow, I must have been really stupid to think before that getting drunk is fun!.” 

Sometimes life-turns involve turning away from things that are destructive to us like our addictions.

(2) Life-turns can also be “turning the tide” of a negative world-view, or a negative self-esteem. In the cosmos there is continual change between light and darkness.  As a spiritual mentor friend of mine describes it in these words:  “Sometimes life can be so overwhelming, or the messages from others are so critical, negative and abusive that it feels like there is a constant cloud hanging over us—or it feels like we constantly live in a dark cave where the sunshine can’t get in.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”  The Divine Light of God shone through Jesus’ humanity that people risk coming out of their caves to live in the light. Usually we think about creating positive self-esteem in children, but it can life change also for older generations.

A family had 4 children who were all growing up and mom and dad were looking forward to letting go of direct parental responsibilities as children left home to get education or jobs. But mom kept getting sick in the mornings and much to her dismay, she and dad learned they were going to be parents one more time. And not just one more child, but two were expected. 

It was tough nine months of adapting to the “news,” but they both decided they could do this. But from the very beginning the birth of a twins a boy and a girl challenged them to their limits. Their limits of energy, space, time, finances, and emotions often put them in deep conflicts with the twins and in those late elementary years the messages from the twins were very direct, and wounding.

The classes at school had a “hero and heroines” day. The kids were to dress up like someone they consider a hero or heroine. That morning at breakfast, mom and dad were startled to see their daughter dressed up in mom’s dress and apron that she wore everyday, and their son in a shirt and tie and a too large sport coat of his dad.   At first mom and dad chided the twins for not dressing up for the special day, but soon they got the message.

The twins had chosen their mom and dad as their hero and heroine and the kids underscored with words their appreciation of their parents’ skills. Mom and dad’s tiredness lifted and their tattered parenting images healed.

Turning-points can include “turning the tide of poor self-esteem.

(3) Turning-points can happen in various time frames. Some of us can identify the moment, the time, the place, the event, the persons, where life turned for us. For others of us, we may not be able to identify a specific time or place, but we know that life has changed, gradually, incrementally over the years and life is different now than it once was. Think about your turning points: the immediate, dramatic ones, and the gradual ones.

4. Turning points often involve a change in direction. I saw a cartoon recently based on a reality show where someone is given a complete cosmetic and clothing “make-over.”  The woman being “made-over” looks in the mirror and declares, “There’s the brand new me. Now, where was I going?”

Where we are going  often means a change in direction. The Bible says that the Hebrew people spent 40 years going from slavery in Egypt to entering the Promised Land. The distance from Egypt to Israel is NOT that far. What the 40 years probably means is that they were going around in circles and it was only when they as a community discovered their purpose that they could get to their destination.  (As a side-bar, I believe this is time in history when Churches need to consider our sense of direction. Maybe it’s re-discover old, lost values, or maybe it’s finding new ways of living those values in a new time.)

Rev. Billy Graham is a spiritual leader who has helped millions find a new direction for their lives. He tells a cut story about this on himself. He arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. He wrote a letter in his hotel room and came downstairs, went outside and asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy gave him directions, Billy Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Baptist Church tonight, you can hear me tell everyone how to get to heaven.”

The boy replied, “I don’t think I’ll be there. You don’t even know your way to the Post Office.”

Life-turning often involves find our direction our purpose and our values.

5. You-turns often involve healing relationships. I was at a charity dinner the other evening and ran into a couple who I knew from years ago. The wife’s brother and sister-in-law, were members of one of my previous congregations. I asked her how her brother was—as I have lost track of him. Her face shifted from bright and shining, to sad and downcast. With tears in her eyes she said she and her brother are estranged—and the brother is estranged from the whole family.

Turning-points in life can involve re-turning to relationships, re-turning to family, or to friends in a process of reconciliation. Remember the reconciliation story of the prodigal child? The father kept his eyes focused on the horizon, watching for the child to return. And the child, young adult, had to chose to turn his life in a new direction and seek to be part of the family circle again.  Life-turns often call us to return home.

6. And finally, keep in mind that life-turns often are very transformational. Jesus comes to offer us life in all its fullness and all its abundance. And that calls us to turn, or re-turn to God. Our relationship with Creator God, in and with Jesus the Christ, offers us the biggest and the best chance to live our lives to the fullest.

The leper Jesus healed has such a life-changing experience that he runs off to tell everyone…even though Jesus has told him NOT to tell anyone.

And immediately the waiting room of the Jesus healing and health center is packed to overflowing with people without health cards, without appointments, and without health plans.

What does he do?  He retreats into solitude, being alone, so that he can re-connect with the source of his healing power, the source of his life-energy, Creator God. 

Isn’t that what calls us today?  Life is so full with stuff and things, and junk that really doesn’t matter in the long-run that we need to be with the Divine Lover who remains faithful to us in every season of our lives. Don’t we need the Divine unconditional love so much more than a Hallmark Valentine Card?

Here’s our homework.  This week, let’s each of us talk with one or two other people about the turning points in our lives. It will be good for both of you, both of us.

Rev. John Henry Weinlick-run that we need to be with the Divine Lover who remains faithful to us in every season of our lives. Don’t we need the Divine unconditional love so much more than a Hallmark Valentine Card?

Here’s our homework.  This week, let’s each of us talk with one or two other people about the turning points in our lives. It will be good for both of you, both of us.

Rev. John Henry Weinlick